LINC’s Web-Based Platform Is Transforming Education

LINC (Learning Innovation Catalyst) helps schools and teachers achieve real transformation through consultancy, professional development, and blended learning implementation.

At the core of LINC’s business is LINCSPRING — a customized, web-based, multi- user Agile Professional Learning Community System. LINCSPRING is used for school transformation and community development at client organizations, as well as streamlining and managing internal operations at LINC.

When LINC first started working with schools, the Learning Management System (LMS) they used was able to deliver their program to the schools they were serving, but with a high toll on the LINC operations team and a subpar user experience (UX). The basic online platform was restricting the company from extending its client base, and the rigid, unexciting user experience allowed for very little automation. As a result, there was poor user engagement as well as lot of ad-hoc, manual document processing on behalf of the LINC team.

LINC had anticipated this constraint and knew it would be exacerbated by the company’s growth, so early on they set their sights on a more customized solution.

When Tiffany Wycoff, Co-Founder of LINC, decided to partner with Koombea to build a customized solution, she and the LINC executive team had a clear understanding of the needs of the schools they served, but benefited significantly from the Koombea team’s expertise in honing the product design to match and prioritize those needs.

The increased use of digital tools and blended learning models in schools has resulted in a high demand for blended and personalized professional development for teachers, as well as a way to assess, track, and support organizational change. Although the team at LINC had a fairly concrete idea of how they wanted to address this demand with their own application, it was Koombea’s critical analysis that won their business.

With a modern, holistic, intuitive solution to offer educators, LINC quickly acquired new business throughout North and South America, proving just how hungry the industry was for a hi-tech, customizable Professional Learning Community System.

Wycoff knew her company needed a solution that would allow for full control of the user experience (UX), including the co-creation of tasks and add-ons.

The company had to invest large amounts of time to onboard each client and train users of the platform. This case-by-case, manual time investment resulted in huge challenges as the company aimed to scale its business.

It was clear that in order to successfully deploy their methodology, LINC needed a customized solution that would provide flexibility and autonomy through features such as learner sharing, multi-level access, progress and goal tracking, co-creation of content, and automated updates.

Studies show that on average, an employee spends up to 60% of his or her time per day managing and consolidating documents containing different records. Employees in the education industry are no different. LINC needed to offer tools and software that would not only streamline employee efficiency, but also support personal growth.

While the company’s previous solution provided a consistent experience for teachers and administrators, the LINC team knew they would need a platform that enabled unique and customizable experiences at the administrative and instructional level.

After conducting research, the team found that the market was crowded with solutions that claimed to optimize both teaching and training strategies and processes in schools. In fact, the global eLearning market is expected to grow at a compounded rate of over 7% each year, reaching $325B by 2025.

However, what LINC found was that the tools in the market didn’t actually impact the way teachers and learning operated.

Wycoff knew her company needed a solution that would allow for full control of the user experience (UX), including the co-creation to tasks and add-ons.

While there are a plethora of methods that can be used to improve business performance, building and providing the right Professional Learning Community System was the most critical element of LINC’s business success.

From providing more personalized experiences for users, to enabling client organizations to improve communication and collaboration, LINCSPRING has completely transformed growth and learning at client organizations for the better.

Today there are over 500 users in LINCSPRING, and the company expects to have 1000+ daily users in the platform by 2019.

“We’re blown away by where LINCSPRING currently stands,” explains Wycoff. “Koombea was able to bring the idea in our heads to reality. With a previous development partner, we were using an existing platform and determining what we could put into it. With the Koombea solution, we were amazed by how well it fit exactly what we were looking for — from the customizable UX and the platform’s integration with G Suite, to the overall intuitiveness of the UI.”

But it’s not just the LINC team that has been enjoying the upgraded nature of LINCSPRING — their clients have rave reviews as well.

“So far, all of the feedback I’ve gotten from clients has expressed that LINCSPRING is incredibly intuitive, easy-to-use, and customizable,” says Wycoff. “Clients are even saying that they want to start using the platform with their students to create learning cycles for them. We’ve opened up a whole new potential opportunity if we decide to offer LINCSPRING as a student LMS!”